Late Miocene megalake regressions in Eurasia

Dan Valentin Palcu; Irina Stanislavovna Patina; Ionuț Șandric; Sergei Lazarev; Iuliana Vasiliev; Marius Stoica; Wout Krijgsman

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-91001-z

Late Miocene megalake regressions in Eurasia

Dan Valentin Palcu^*
, Irina Stanislavovna Patina
, Ionuț Șandric
, Sergei Lazarev
, Iuliana Vasiliev
, Marius Stoica
, Wout Krijgsman

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The largest megalake in the geological record formed in Eurasia during the late Miocene, when the epicontinental Paratethys Sea became tectonically-trapped and disconnected from the global ocean. The megalake was characterized by several episodes of hydrological instability and partial desiccation, but the chronology, magnitude and impacts of these paleoenvironmental crises are poorly known. Our integrated stratigraphic study shows that the main desiccation episodes occurred between 9.75 and 7.65 million years ago. We identify four major regressions that correlate with aridification events, vegetation changes and faunal turnovers in large parts of Europe. Our paleogeographic reconstructions reveal that the Paratethys was profoundly transformed during regression episodes, losing ~ 1/3 of the water volume and ~ 70% of its surface during the most extreme events. The remaining water was stored in a central salt-lake and peripheral desalinated basins while vast regions (up to 1.75 million km²) became emergent land, suitable for development of forest-steppe landscapes. The partial megalake desiccations match with climate, food-web and landscape changes throughout Eurasia, although the exact triggers and mechanisms remain to be resolved.

Original language	English
Article number	11471
Pages (from-to)	1-12
Number of pages	12
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91001-z
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) [grant 865.10.011] to WK; DP acknowledges the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for financial support through grant 2018/20733-6; SL was financially supported by the PRIDE project (Pontocaspian RIse and DEmise), which was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (grant agreement no. 642973); I.P. acknowledges funding from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project A 19-05-00743 and State Assignment GIN RAS.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) [grant 865.10.011] to WK; DP acknowledges the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for financial support through grant 2018/20733-6; SL was financially supported by the PRIDE project (Pontocaspian RIse and DEmise), which was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (grant agreement no. 642973); I.P. acknowledges funding from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project A 19-05-00743 and State Assignment GIN RAS.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action
SDG 15 Life on Land

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10.1038/s41598-021-91001-zLicence: CC BY

s41598-021-91001-zFinal published version, 2.2 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "The largest megalake in the geological record formed in Eurasia during the late Miocene, when the epicontinental Paratethys Sea became tectonically-trapped and disconnected from the global ocean. The megalake was characterized by several episodes of hydrological instability and partial desiccation, but the chronology, magnitude and impacts of these paleoenvironmental crises are poorly known. Our integrated stratigraphic study shows that the main desiccation episodes occurred between 9.75 and 7.65 million years ago. We identify four major regressions that correlate with aridification events, vegetation changes and faunal turnovers in large parts of Europe. Our paleogeographic reconstructions reveal that the Paratethys was profoundly transformed during regression episodes, losing \textasciitilde{} 1/3 of the water volume and \textasciitilde{} 70\% of its surface during the most extreme events. The remaining water was stored in a central salt-lake and peripheral desalinated basins while vast regions (up to 1.75 million km2) became emergent land, suitable for development of forest-steppe landscapes. The partial megalake desiccations match with climate, food-web and landscape changes throughout Eurasia, although the exact triggers and mechanisms remain to be resolved.",

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AU - Stoica, Marius

AU - Krijgsman, Wout

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Late Miocene megalake regressions in Eurasia

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

UN SDGs

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